POTD: Ekaterina I

From 2018 08 13 Catherine Palace

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Catherine Palace outside St Petersburg, Russia. It was the summer home of the tsars. It was named after Peter the Great's wife and successor, Empress Catherine I (not the later Catherine the Great, who began the Hermitage art collection in the Winter Palace that we've seen in previous POTDs). There are so many palaces and tsars and tsarinas that tourists can be forgiven for not keeping them all straight.

Bonus photo after the jump.

POTD: The Throne Room

From 2018 08 12 Winter Palace & Hermitage

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, Russia. The Winter Palace houses the Hermitage Museum, which is one of the world's great art museums, but it's impossible to overlook that this building was also home of the tsars. As you wander from one art gallery to the next, you keep running into rooms like this. Go for the history, go for the architecture, go for the art, but do try to go.

POTD: Just a Malachite Vase

From 2018 08 12 Winter Palace & Hermitage

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Hermitage in St Petersburg, Russia. It shows a malachite vase, but it's not the Giant Malachite Vase, nor is it in the Malachite Room. I guess it's just a run-of-the-mill malachite vase. Such is the excess of treasures on display in the Winter Palace.

Russian Doll (TV 2019)

Rotten Tomatoes

Russian Doll (TV 2019): Brash New Yorker is caught in looping, connected timelines as she keeps dying and rebooting at her birthday party. Quirky, original, absolutely captivating, with a satisfying ending as well. Can't wait for Season 2, but where can Natasha Lyonne take it? A+

Idle Thoughts: Why I Hate Analogies

Tweets from February, 2019:

• Feb 1 2019: Why I hate using analogies.
  "Analogies, in particular, can illuminate, but they can also obscure and confuse. They need to be handled carefully, like rhetorical high explosives."
• Feb 1 2019: Mamma Mia! at PHS: The music of ABBA onstage in RISD. Pop hits before these kids were born, maybe before their parents were born, brought back to life with great fun. Live orchestra, great voices, big cast. Be sure to stay for the curtain call and dance in the aisles.
• Feb 1 2019: In this drama, the role of "American woman" is played by Donald Trump.
  American woman: I think you're cheating on me.
  Russian boyfriend: If you'd just agree to an open relationship, it wouldn't be cheating.
  American woman: Deal.

After the jump, more idle thoughts.

POTD: Raphael Loggias in the Hermitage

From 2018 08 12 Winter Palace & Hermitage

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Hermitage in St Petersburg, Russia. This photo is not the throne room or a ballroom, but of a humble hallway. It's the gallery known as the "Raphael Loggias, designed by Giacomo Quarenghi and painted by Cristopher Unterberger and his workshop in the 1780s as a replication of the loggia in the Apostolic Palace in Rome frescoed by Raphael." (Wikipedia).

Bonus photo after the jump.

Review: There There

Amazon

From There There, by Tommy Orange:

But what we are is what our ancestors did. How they survived. We are the memories we don’t remember, which live in us, which we feel, which make us sing and dance and pray the way we do, feelings from memories that flare and bloom unexpectedly in our lives like blood through a blanket from a wound made by a bullet fired by a man shooting us in the back for our hair, for our heads, for a bounty, or just to get rid of us."

There There is a short novel of many characters, each with a story of what it means to be a Native American in an urban setting, in this case Oakland, California.

Leave No Trace (2018)

Rotten Tomatoes

Leave No Trace (2018): A combat veteran and his teenage daughter live off the grid in the Oregon forest. A character study of his inability to return to civilian life and the strains that places on her. An understated, touching look at one case of the "unhoused." B-

POTD: Leonardo's "Madonna Litta"

From 2018 08 12 Winter Palace & Hermitage

Today's photo-of-the-day is from one of the world's great museums, the Hermitage in St Petersburg, Russia, founded by Catherine the Great. On most days, like this one, the Hermitage hosts huge crowds of tourists, all come to see art treasures like Leonardo da Vinci's "Madonna Litta". In this case, I found the tourists more photogenic than the artwork.

A bonus photo after the jump.

POTD: Doorway to Riches

From 2018 08 12 Winter Palace & Hermitage

Through these doors lie some of the world's great artworks. Come in and browse. Today's photo-of-the-day is from one of the world's great museums and historic palaces: the Hermitage, founded by Catherine the Great, housed in the Winter Palace, home of Russian tsars for 200 years, from Peter the Great to Nicholas and Alexandra.